Every time?

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

UN Women on Twitter is so stupid.

I’ve “called out” @UN_Women’s sexist behavior several times. Fat lot of good it did me.

Only yesterday they behaved sexistly.

No, why we fight is not the same “no matter what our gender is.” If you say it is you’re saying there’s no need for feminism, and that, given the realities, is intensely sexist. Tell women in Afghanistan that “why we fight is the same.”

https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1485100061696667650

We want sex equality. “Gender” has become a tool for sneaking men in through the back door.

Am I? Even if I don’t agree that men can be women?

Comments

8 responses to “Every time?”

  1. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Yeah, it’ll go to 50% of executives are women but they’ll all in reality be autogynephiles. I’d hazard that 46% number also includes a lot of AGPs and people pretending that playing Candy Crush (or the 2022 equivalent) makes you a gamer. On top of that it’s such a KenDiAngelo way of looking at the world.

  2. tigger_the_wing Avatar
    tigger_the_wing

    So playing the games which mostly men like to play makes someone a gamer, but playing the games which mostly women like to play doesn’t make someone a gamer? I would call that assertion pretty sexist.

  3. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    So playing the games which mostly men like to play makes someone a gamer, but playing the games which mostly women like to play doesn’t make someone a gamer? I would call that assertion pretty sexist.

    Hear, hear. Applause. This has long been a thorn in my side. If they are games, they are games. Period. (But are trans games games? I am confused on that point.)

  4. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Tigger and inklast, agreed. Pretty much if the game is non-violent ‘hard core’ gamers don’t regard you as a gamer, even if millions of people love the game. Even getting some of them to sniffily admit that it is a game can be hard.

    I think in their heads it’s the difference between a Gamer playing a Game and a nobody playing.

  5. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    “Gamer” is a tribe or title, that’s what it means. Boundary setting. Candy Crush is a game, but mobile games are a whole different kettle of fish than all that came before. Making the category “woman” more inclusive hasn’t exactly shaken out well has it?

  6. Sackbut Avatar
    Sackbut

    I agree with BKiSA@5; while there is certainly prejudice about “games girls like to play” versus “games boys like to play”, Candy Crush is a mobile game, not generally a category that comes to mind for considering someone a “gamer”. There are violent mobile games. and they are also not relevant, at least in my view.

    I see that this question comes up in the gaming community, with some disagreement. The author of the linked article does think that mobile game players can be considered gamers, and he provides a couple of interesting opinions on the categories of games and categories of gamers.

    Casual gamers are the people who mostly own console systems and buy mostly sports and racing games. They don’t like fantasy games and only enjoy sci-fi games based on movies they may have seen.

    …

    The group of people who call themselves Hardcore gamers aren’t often quite as “hardcore” about gaming as they would like to think. These are the people you see complaining that games now come in fancy modes like “3D” and debating the finer points of why Final Fantasy 6 was better than Final Fantasy 7.

    …

    Finally there are the true gamers who actually treat gaming as a real HOBBY and not just a way to pass time or something to try and collect hundred upon thousands of.

    …

    A game like Diablo 3 that lets you control and play your character, level up, collect items, craft items, and destroy hordes of demons can be considered to be an action role playing game. Take out the ability to control your character live turns the game into a simulation game. It’s like sending your character on a mission and a few minutes later return with a report on how many monsters were killed, experience gained, and items looted. Does this not sound like a simulation game? It sure does! That’s why it’s called simulation. And a simulation game is a genre in the gaming industry and the people that play it can be called a gamer.

    I see, too, that this other article would advise me to “grow the hell up” and would consider any players of any games to be “gamers”. This article has some interesting things to say about women vs men:

    According to a survey study from Quantic Foundry, men tend to consider playing games seriously as involving competition and challenge. This can be associated with genres like first-person shooters with competitive multiplayer gameplay where the objective is to climb the ladder and defeat your competition.

    On the other hand, according to the same study, women tend to consider design and completion to be the cornerstones of serious gaming. Think of life simulator games like The Sims and Animal Crossing series that involve heavy customization and unlockable items.

    Again, different genders — different people, for that matter, have different motivations for playing games at a high level. Therefore, no motivation is wrong. People play games for their own reasons, and one isn’t more correct than the other.

    These are categories I recognize from the games I and my kids used to play. Mobile cuts across these categories. So maybe I’m wrong, and need to “grow the hell up”; I’ll consider it.

  7. Holms Avatar
    Holms

    Pish posh, Sackbut. “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” – C. S. Lewis. At least, that’s the excuse I use.

  8. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Not sure that I count as a gamer anymore since I’ve only swapped out a video card in the past four years, but I’m still an obsessive weirdo so that might count. That’s identity for you…

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